Tissue adhesive

ABSTRACT

A tissue adhesive on the basis of human or animal protein contains factor XIII and at least 33% by weight of fibrinogen, has a ratio of factor XIII to fibrinogen, expressed in units of factor XIII per gram of fibrinogen, of at least 80, contains fibrinogen and albumin in the total protein at a ratio of 33 to 90:5 to 40, contains plasminogen-activator-inhibitor or plasmin inhibitor in an amount of 250 to 25,000 KIU per g of fibrinogen and has been lyophilized.

This is a division of application Ser. No. 118,529, filed Feb. 4, 1980,now U.S. Pat. No. 4,362,567.

The invention relates to a tissue adhesive on the basis of human oranimal proteins, containing fibrinogen and factor XIII.

It has been known for long to use blood coagulating substances forstopping bleedings and for sealing wounds. According to the firstproposals of this kind, fibrin tampons and fibrin platelets,respectively, were used. During the Second World War, tissue adherencesby means of blood plasma were suggested.

In recent times, a tissue adhesive on the basis of fibrinogen and factorXIII for seamless interfascicular nerve transplantations in animalexperiments has been described by H. Matras et al. in "WienerMedizinischen Wochenschrift", 1972, page 517.

A further study was carried out by Spangler et al. in "Wiener KlinischenWochenschrift", 1973, pages 1 to 7. Also there, the possibility wasshown in animal experiments of carrying out a tissue adherence with theaid of fibrinogen as a cryoprecipitate and thrombin.

The known preparations have not yet proved satisfactory, since they donot sufficiently meet the demands set to a tissue adhesive, i.e.

(a) high straining capacity of the adherences and wound sealings as wellas safe and permanent blood stopping, i.e. good adhering capacity of theadhesive to the wound and tissue surfaces, as well as high internalstrength of the same,

(b) controllable durability of the adherences in the body,

(c) complete absorbability of the adhesive in the course of the woundhealing process,

(d) would healing stimulating properties. This may partly be due to thefact that, in the known preparations, the coagulation factors necessaryfor blood stopping have not been present in an optimal proportion to oneanother, and also to the fact that the fibrinolytic activity in the areaof adherence has not been sufficiently under control. Prematuredissolutions of the tissue adherences frequently occurred due toenzymatic influence.

The invention aims at avoiding these disadvantages and difficulties andhas as its object to provide a lyophilized tissue adhesive of human oranimal origin, which meets the demands set out further above and whichis present in a lyophilized form, which is desired for its longerdurability and better transporting and storing properties.

Accordingly, the invention consists in a combination of the followingcharacteristic features:

(a) that it contains at least 33% by weight of fibrinogen,

(b) that the ratio of factor XIII to fibrinogen, expressed in units offactor XIII per gram of fibrinogen, amounts to at least 80,

(c) that in the total protein, fibrinogen and albumin are contained at aratio of 33 to 90:5 to 40,

(d) that it has a content of plasminogen-activator-inhibitor orplasmin-inhibitor, preferably aprotinin, in an amount of 250 to 25,000Kallikrein-inactivator-units (KIU) per gram of fibrinogen,

(e) that the preparation has been lyophilized.

According to a preferred embodiment, the tissue adhesive additionallycontains glycine, whereby the resolubility of the lyophilized product isimproved.

Furthermore, the tissue adhesive additionally may contain glucose orsucrose, which components also improve the solubility.

The tissue adhesive furthermore may contain 0.2 to 200 InternationalUnits (IU) of heparin per gram of fibrinogen, whereby a stabilizingeffect is obtained.

The tissue adhesive according to the invention possesses characteristiccross-linking properties after the dissolution, which are determinableby the sodiumdodecyl-sulphate-(SDS)-polyacrylamide-gel-electrophoresismethod. The test is carried out in that, after mixing of the tissueadhesive with an equal volume of a solution containing 40 μMoles ofCaCl₂ and 15 NIH-units (U.S. National Institute of Health units) ofthrombin per ml, the mixture is incubated at 37° C. The cross-linkingdegree is determined by gel electrophoresis after stopping of thereaction and reductive splitting of the disulphide bridges contained inthe proteins by the addition of a mixture of urea, sodium dodecylsulphate and β-mercaptoethanol. Typical of the tissue adhesive accordingto the invention is a complete cross-linking of the fibrin-γ-chainsafter 3 to 5 minutes, and a cross-linking of at least 35% of thefibrin-α-chains after two hours.

Fibrinogen, albumin and cold-insoluble globulin, in the total protein,are to be present in the tissue adhesive according to the invention at acertain ratio; this ratio amounts to 33 to 90:5 to 40:0.2 to 15.

The invention moreover comprises a method of producing the tissueadhesive described by starting out from a plasma cryoprecipitate, whichmethod is characterized in that cold-soluble plasma-protein is removedfrom the cryoprecipitate by a single or repeated treatment with a buffersolution containing sodium citrate, sodium chloride, glycine, glucoseand a plasminogen-activator-inhibitor or plasmin-inhibitor and heparin,the purified precipitate is dissolved, human albumin is added and thesolution is lyophilized.

Advantageously, the cryoprecipitate has been produced of human or animalfresh plasma frozen at -20° C. When increasing the temperature to 0° to2° C., the cryoprecipitate is gained and separated by centrifugation.The precipitate is eluted by a single or repeated elution with thebuffer solution having a pH of 6 to 8.0, and centrifuged at 0° to 4° C.in order to remove the plasma-protein that is soluble in the cold. Thetreatment with the buffer solution is carried out until the desiredfactor-XIII-fibrinogen ratio is reached.

The purified precipitate is dissolved with a further buffer solutioncontaining human albumin, glycine and, if desired, glucose or sucrose, aplasminogen-activator-inhibitor or plasmin inhibitor as well as heparin,and having a pH of 6.5 to 9.0, and is diluted to a protein concentrationof 4.0 to 9.0%. The solution is filtered through a membrane filterhaving a pore size of down to 0.2 μm, filled into final containers andlyophilized.

The lyophilized tissue adhesive thus obtained can be stored at roomtemperature or preferably at +4° C.; it is ready for use afterreconstitution with aqua ad iniectabilia, to which, if desired, aplasminogen-activator-inhibitor or a plasmin inhibitor, preferablyaprotinin, can be added. When dissolving the lyophilized preparation,attention has to be paid that the solution ready for use contains atleast 70 mg of fibrinogen per ml.

The tissue adhesive according to the invention can be applieduniversally. It can be used for seamless connection of human or animaltissue or organ parts, for sealing wounds and stopping bleedings as wellas for stimulating wound healings.

Preferred fields of application in which the tissue adhesive can besuccessfully used are: indications in the field of ear, nose and throatsurgery, oral surgery, dentistry, neurosurgery, plastic surgery, generalsurgery, abdonimal surgery, thorax and vascular surgery, orthopaedics,accident surgery, urology, ophthalmology and gynaecology.

Advantageously, a mixture of thrombin and calcium chloride is added tothe adhesive prior to the application of the tissue adhesive accordingto the invention, or is applied onto the tissues to be connected.

The method of the invention is explained in more detail by way of thefollowing example:

21 l of human plasma, which had been frozen at -20° C., were heated to+2° C. The resulting cryoprecipitate (435 g) was separated bycentrifugation at +2° C. and treated at +2° C. with 4.3 l of a buffersolution adjusted at a pH of 6.5 and containing 6.6 g of Na₃-citrate.2H₂ O, 3.4 g of NaCl, 10.0 g of glycine, 13.0 g of glucose.1H₂O, 50,000 KIU of aprotinin and 200 IU of heparin per 1, and againcentrifuged at +2° C. The separated precipitate was dissolved in afurther buffer solution having a pH of 7.9 and containing 35.0 g ofhuman albumin, 20.0 g of glycine, 50,000 KIU of aprotinin and 200 IU ofheparin per l, and diluted to a concentration of 70 mg of protein perml.

Then the solution was sterilized by filtration through membrane filtershaving a pore size of down to 0.2 μm, filled into final containers at2.2 ml each, deep-frozen and lyophilized. After reconstitution of thelyophilized product to a fibrinogen concentration of 90 mg/ml, thetissue adhesive preparation ready for use showed, in the cross-linkingtest, complete fibrin-γ-cross-linking after 5 minutes and 66%fibrin-α-cross-linking after 2 hours at 37° C.

The ratio of the proteins fibrinogen to albumin to cold-insolubleglobulin, contained in the tissue adhesive, was determined to be64.0:22.3:7.7. The heparin content was 4.5 IU per g of fibrinogen.Aprotinin was contained at a concentration of 1,113 KIU per g offibrinogen. The content of factor XIII amounted to 161 units per g offibrinogen. The total protein content in the lyophilized preparation was72.2%, the content of fibrinogen in the lyophilized preparation was46.2%.

The determinations were carried out in the following manner: Thedetermination of the factor-XIII-units was performed by means of across-linking test, in which factor-XIII-free fibrinogen was used as asubstrate and the fibrin cross-linking caused by the addition of theunknown diluted sample served as a measure for the amount of factor XIIIcontained therein. A corresponding calibration curve was obtained withpooled human citrate plasma, 1 ml plasma containing 1 unit of factorXIII per definitionem. The quantitative protein determinations werecarried out by the method according to Kjeldahl.

The determination of the proteins relative to one another was alsoperformed by the SDS-polyacrylamide-gel-electrophoresis method, i.e. (a)with a non-reduced sample of the tissue adhesive and (b) with a samplereduced with β-mercaptoethanol.

What we claim is:
 1. A method of seamlessly connecting tissue or organparts, for sealing wounds, stopping bleeding and stimulating woundhealing in mammals which comprises reconstituting lyophilized tissueadhesive of mammalian protein origin which comprises fibrinogen,albumin, factor XIII, cold-insoluble globulin and plasminogen-activatorinhibitor or plasmin inhibitor wherein the fibrinogen is present in atleast 33% by weight, in the lyophilized state, the ratio of factor XIIIto fibrinogen, expressed in units of factor XIII per gram of fibrinogenis at least 80, and fibrinogen and albumin are present in a ratio of 33to 90:5 to 40 and applying said reconstituted tissue adhesive containingat least 70 mg of fibrinogen per ml to the organ tissue or wound of amammal in an amount sufficient to function as an adhesive.
 2. A methodas set forth in claim 1, wherein the tissue adhesive and a mixture ofthrombin and calcium chloride are applied onto the tissue.
 3. A methodas set forth in claim 1, wherein, prior to applying the tissue adhesiveonto the tissue to be connected, a mixture of thrombin and calciumchloride is added to the adhesive.